I love it when parents pay monthly! Just think, yuo have a whole month paid in advance...if they decide to leave without proper notice, you are covered unless they leave at the end of the month. It is less accounting and just all around easy (just make sure you calculate the number of days in each month and let them know what they should pay for each month...otherwise they might try to just pay you for 4 weeks or something). But, for the holding fee....it would be non-refundable and I would also ask for a two week deposit to be held for their LAST two weeks of care. If you have a space open now, you are passing up potential clients that could start right away in order to hold the space for them. They are paying the holding fee to offset this....it is not refundable and it cannot be applied to their first two weeks fees!